The Fiftieth GateA love story and a detective story, a study of history and of memory, this spellbinding new work explores a son's confrontation with the terror of his parents' childhood.Moving from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, Mark Raphael Baker travels across the silence of fifty years, through the gates of Auschwitz, and into a dark bunker where a little girl hides in fear. As he returns to scenes of his parents' captivity, he struggles to unveil the mystery of their survival.the Fiftieth Gate is a journey from despair and death towards hope and life; the story of a son who enters his parents' memories and, inside the darkness, finds light.* Winner, NSW Premier's Literary Award 1997'It is an honour to read this magnificent book. Baker does with memory what Rembrandt does with light. He uses it to model, to imagine, to illuminate, to astonish.' - Philip Adams'this gate here, I recognise it. Behind it is a steep slope, a hill, fields, grass. We would slide down it in winter.'At last, an incontrovertible test through which my father's memory might be vindicated. two lone gates that appear to lead nowhere.'Push,' we scream, 'lift the latch and push.''No. I remember too much now. No.' |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Aktion Archives of Ivano-Frankovsk Archives of Kielce Archiwum assemble the fragments Auschwitz Belzec Bołszowce Buchenwald Buna-Monowitz is discussed Bursztyn Central Historical Commission certificate Odpis skrócony Death Camp District of Galicia FIFTIETH GATE MARK files forty-ninth gate GATE MARK RAPHAEL grandfather Leib Bekiermaszyn's Hasidic History Holocaust International Tracing Service Jerusalem Jewish Council Jewish Historical Institute Jewish labour camp Jewish mystical Judenrat June Kabbalah Krystyna Wyszogrodzki Kurt Gerstein List of Jews located LudnoÊci ydowskiej Lwów MARK RAPHAEL BAKER Mayor of Starachowice Melbourne memory mother's family murdered Odpis skrócony aktu Organisation parents Poland Polish prayer prisoners Rabbi Radom District records Rohatyn Sarah and Rachel Sefer Sprawozdania sytuacyjne Stanisławów Starachowicach Starachowice Akta Starachowice Division Starachowice-Wierzbnik Starosta stories Strzelnica Survivors Szydłowiec testimony Town of Starachowice trans Treblinka Ukraine Ukrainian Urzàd Wojewódzki Vashem Central Archives Voivoda Warsaw Wierzbnik Wierzbnik-Starachowice Wierzbnik's Jewish Yad Vashem Central ydowskiej w Dystrykcie Yiddish York and London Zagłada Zohar